Think Globally, Act Locally: The Determinants of Local Policymakers’ Support for Climate Policy

Name: Think Globally, Act Locally: The Determinants of Local Policymakers’ Support for Climate Policy
Start: 2022-04-13T13:00:00-0400
End: 2022-04-13T14:00:00-0400

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Please join the Environment and Natural Resources Program for a seminar featuring Joshua Schwartz, Grand Strategy, Security, and Statecraft Fellow with the International Security Program, and Sabrina Arias, Political Science PhD Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, who will present their research on the determinants of local policymakers' support for climate initiatives. Q&A to follow.

Attendance: This event is open to the public and hosted on Zoom. For those who cannot attend live, the seminar will be recorded and available to watch on this page.

Accessibility: Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access, please contact Elizabeth Hanlon (ehanlon@hks.harvard.edu) in advance of the session.

Registration: Please RSVP at the link below. Registration will remain open until the event begins.

Date: Wed, Apr 13, 2022 Time: 01:00pm - 02:00pm Location: Online

Courtesy of Joshua Schwartz and Sabrina Arias

Summary

Given the lack of sufficient progress at the national level to combat climate change, local environmental initiatives have taken on increased importance. However, relatively little research examines the policy preferences of local policymakers themselves, whether the design features of climate policies impact their preferences, and whether policymaker and public preferences are contradictory or congruent. To address these gaps in the literature, we conduct a conjoint experiment on over 500 local policymakers and pair this elite experiment with an identical replication conducted on the American public. Per our theoretical expectations, we find that a range of climate policy design elements have a significant impact on policymaker support, and elite preferences are largely congruent with public preferences. Although national polarization over climate change suggests hope for progress is far-fetched, our findings demonstrate progress is indeed possible at the local level if environmental policies are optimally designed to maximize support.

Read the draft paper.

Speakers

Sabrina Arias is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania concentrating in international relations. Her research focuses on topics including public opinion, international cooperation, American foreign policy, and climate politics. Her dissertation examines how small and medium countries employ lobbying strategies and diplomatic capital to ‘punch above their weight’ at the UN. Arias' research is published or forthcoming in the Journal of Politics and International Studies Quarterly. Before coming to Penn, Arias worked in the private sector as a market research consultant, taught English in Malaysia as a Fulbright ETA, and obtained a master’s degree in political science from Columbia University, as well as a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Rutgers University.

Moderator

Santiago Cunial is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Pennsylvania, and a graduate fellow at the Penn Development Research Initiative and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. He is interested in comparative politics and the political economy of development, with a substantive focus on environmental politics in the Global South. Cunial's dissertation studies the political and institutional determinants (and barriers) of green energy transitions in Latin America. His research analyzes how and when policies restructure incentives for key public- and private-sector stakeholders in the energy sector. Before coming to Penn, Cunial received a MA in Political Science from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella and a BA in Political Science from Universidad de Buenos Aires.